Medicine 6627

Foundations

Arts in Medicine, Medicine in Art. Medicine 6627 is an elective for a small group of 1st and 2nd year students. They meet on occasions to discuss sections from On Doctoring, attend lectures and participate in field trips to enhance the humanistic influence of the arts in the medical curriculum. These include a guided visit to the Denver Art Museum, a life drawing class, and art therapy demonstration, etc.

Foundations of Doctoring: Using Art to Teach Observational Skills Foundations of Doctoring is a three-year longitudinal curriculum at the University of Colorado Denver School of Medicine, which focuses on basic clinical skills. In the fall of 2003, we incorporated an innovative method for teaching observational skills as a portion of our physical exam curriculum.

Reflective WritingMedical students in the Integrated Clinicians Course (ICC 7003, Phase III) prepare a 2-page max piece of reflective writing, - prose (poetry accepted, too). This is usually a narrative about interaction(s) with a particular patient, but might also cover interactions with faculty, staff, fellow students, families, etc. - material which might be called "about the culture of medicine) i.e. Not a standard history and physical.

These are turned in to the course director before the end of the rotation. Students then meet once, in small groups, to read and discuss their writings with faculty facilitators.

This program was started in 2004 in the Internal Medicine Clerkship and subsequently was moved to ICC and has been very rewarding. Many of the contributions have been insightful and often very moving emotionally. The exercise is required but is not graded.

Collaboration with PT Physical Therapy like Medicine is a science as well as an art.  Observing the human body in its static and dynamic forms is crucial to the delivery of care. Observational skills are taught early in the program and further developed throughout the curriculum. In the fall of 2003, a physical therapy pilot study titled “Enhancement of Observational Skills in PT Students Using Images of Art” was conducted within the Art in Medicine program, Foundations of Doctoring course. Future plans to integrate exploration of the arts are under consideration for the new Doctorate in Physical Therapy curriculum.